Land Run Skills

I come from a land where they shot a gun to signal the start of a mad dash to claim free land. Thousands lined up to chase the dream of getting a free plot of land in what was Indian Territory and later became Oklahoma. A series of land runs were held during the late 1800's, the most famous of which took place in 1889, to settle/populate the areas of I.T. that were mostly empty at that time. Seventeen years later Oklahoma gained its statehood. Come to think of it, we're coming up on Oklahoma's Centennial celebration next year (which actually kicked off at the Tulsa Run last weekend). My memory of the details from the pioneer days are a little bit vague, it's been some 13 years since Butch Davis' sister (yes, the Butch Davis that coached at Miami & Cleveland and is now headed to Chapel Hill) taught me Oklahoma history as a freshman in high school. But yesterday afternoon I discovered that my heritage has bred certain aptitudes into who I am today.

I decided that I needed some time out of the office, brain was dead from a lot of hours working on budgets and sitting in creative meetings (yes, I said creative meetings, and for the record I pulled out a couple of really good ideas in 3 days worth of meetings). So I decided to take the afternoon off yesterday and sit outside Cardinal Stadium in line to get in for last night's playoff game against Nixa, which coincidentally was to be the last ever played in that stadium (since WC will play any remaining games on the road). I arrived about 12:25 and took my place about 30 people deep in the line (some had arrived as early as 5:30am, the girl right in front of me had been there since 9am). It was quite an experience and perhaps worthy of its own post. Some of the stories that you can't help but overhear in a situation like that are classics.

Not long after I got there I was joined by Caleb, standing in for Robin who would arrive shortly thereafter. A couple of hours later Chase arrived. Finally, after school got out, Robin's son Colin (Robin, if that's the wrong spelling blame it on Annie, that's how it's spelled on the staff info sheet) joined us. Now legend has it that Colin saved the day last week by climbing over the railing into the stands - thus by-passing the slow moving stampede headed for the stairs into the bleachers - and claimed seats for the Sigars family and friends (my wife and I included). As time wore on waiting for the gates to open at 5:30 I began to formulate a plan in my mind. I guess it was that land run thing kicking in.

I realized that with the number of people lined up and pressing toward the gate Colin might need some help and wouldn't be able to hold that many seats for long by himself - WC fans play a little dirty when it comes to getting seats for a big game. You've got to claim them and be able to defend them. So, without mentioning this to anyone, I decided I'd just follow Colin over the railing and up the bleachers. I figured I was nimble enough to pull it off and was less likely to knock down a small child, elderly woman, or air-horn toting parent.

Just like in the days of the land run, just before the gates were opened, we saw a handful of people go running in from one end of the stadium. Now in the land runs these were the Sooners - those who snuck in early, even that name references people who were cheaters (hence my aversion to being associated with it in any way). But alas the gates opened. Then someone bumped the gate and a whole additional section swung open. At that moment I no longer had to go straight ahead to get through the gate, I could veer left on a straight line to the corner of the bleachers - think flag-route to the back corner of the end zone. Colin saw this too and we both dashed to claim our territory. Unlike regular season home games where passes are accepted, in the playoffs you have to carry paper tickets (that's so 80's, even the airlines use e-tickets now) and hand them to someone on the way in. Colin and I both just threw ours in the direction of the ticket-taker as we sprinted by.

I reached the railing about a step behind Colin and gave him a push up over it - just enough to help him along, whatever it takes right? A couple of seconds later I was over the railing myself and dashing up the bleachers to the top row, 47 yard line. I had wisely tucked my blanket - the official tool for saving seats at Cardinal Stadium - under the strap of my backpack. This left both hands free to climb (and deliver any forearm shivers required to claim my land, I mean seats). Upon arriving at the seats I whipped out the blanket and claimed enough space for Brittany and I just in time to keep the nice Hispanic family from getting part of our needed space.

When the gates opened it was just like I'd been trained to do this. I'm told that my mother-in-law (who is famous for her own seat claiming tactics of a few years ago) was sitting in her car outside the stadium watching the whole thing happen and laughing hysterically. Apparently she identified me in the crowd. Maybe it's like a video game where certain players have a symbol above them so you can tell who is who. Maybe mine was an OSU logo.

Shortly after the mad scramble concluded and the seats started filling in with all the people others were claiming seats for, the lady who really would like to have had the seat I was sitting in (actually that my blanket was on and I was standing next to) asked me in somewhat broken English how I'd beaten her to the seats. I just smiled, pointed to the railing and said, "I climbed over the railing and ran." I considered explaining that being from Oklahoma I have natural instincts for running to claim things, but decided it might get lost in translation. Chase said later she was staring me down and was not happy that I'd gotten that seat. I did go on to remind her that I'd sat in the same seat last week. She seemed upset because she and her husband had been there since sometime that morning. While I can understand the frustration, I played fair, I just had a better plan and was equipped to pull it off.

By the way, Webb City beat Nixa 35-7 and plays at Lee's Summit West on Saturday afternoon.